I haven't seen anything about this on the forum - is anyone planning to ride in this inaugaral community event this Sunday?They're closing the SE freeway for it (first time this has been done for a bike ride) so everyone will get to ride up through the Heysen tunnel! Claim any of the three lanes! Surely it's worth it for that alone?

I was tempted by this but decided to race instead, riding through the tunnels has little appeal but the novelty of it will no doubt attract a few riders. I think it a bit confusing when 99% of the time cyclist want to share the roads equally with our motoring friends but today we delight in excluding them so we can ride around for a bit of fun. Can't see many positives in that long term

you cannot be sirrus wrote:I was tempted by this but decided to race instead, riding through the tunnels has little appeal but the novelty of it will no doubt attract a few riders. I think it a bit confusing when 99% of the time cyclist want to share the roads equally with our motoring friends but today we delight in excluding them so we can ride around for a bit of fun. Can't see many positives in that long term

Well I thought it was an excellent event, with 35km of closed roads through some of the nicest countryside in Australia, and the refreshment stops were superb. The climb back up through Verdun/Bridgewater/Crafers/Piccadilly was an absolute sod, with a lot of people off the bikes and walking, but overall it was a very nice ride. I felt sorry for a guy at Ashton who'd had a front flat and taken a bad fall onto his knee - he was being carried to an ambulance on a stretcher when I was there.

The cars were mostly tolerant of having to wait for us all to pass by, with a few notable exceptions - the worst being a little yellow hatchback forcing all the way up the second lane of Glen Osmond Road, beeping its horn and making all the riders move out of the way, despite the fact that we were on a closed road under police escort.

Last years favorite ride for me was the C2C and I was disappointed that they stopped it. However I did the Mt Lofty challenge today and have to say it was excellent. And no trouble getting home afterwards.

I enjoyed it. Cheated by getting up the road 5 mins ahead of the main peloton so avoided the problem of 2000 odd riders trying to occupy the road at once. As a consequence I had a lovely quiet ride with about 5 others on well marshalled or closed roads. Good loop as well, 110 km and 1700m of climbing.

Just a quick one to say what a great event it was. I originally planned to do the 80km but a quick look at my riding partner and we headed off for the 110km. Yes, the climbing at the end was hard but the downhill along Montacute Road was well worth it.

Was anyone else in the group that passed by the ambulance (after being waved by)? That was serious fun.

Thanks to all who put the show together and well done to all the riders who did their best no matter the distance.

I agree it was a tough ride with all the climbing in the second half of the 110km course. Would have been a great ride apart from an incident after 100km. A driver pulled out of a side street onto Montacute Rd without even looking first - the rider in front of me managed to swerve & hit the skids but I had nowhere to go at 50km/hr apart from over the handlebars. Luckily the (involuntary) triple sumersault I performed on the way down somehow saved me from any real damage although my shoulder is a bit sore today. I must say thank you to the riders who stopped to lend a hand - I managed to complete the ride ok. However it was an unfortunate end to a challenging ride - it shows that even with a large number of riders on the road at the same time, drivers can still be oblivious

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